Tony opens a large energy source on the back of his suit, then says, "Okay, Thor. Hit me." Thor yells as he calls down lighting, then hits Tony's back with it, charging up the suit so much and so quickly that Tony can hear it.

He blasts Thanos with all of it, and Thanos simply spins his blade, blocking it. Still, Tony walks closer, and he can tell Thanos is struggling. And then Tony sees Thor's hammer fly in and hit Thanos's blade. It's knocked from his hands, and so he picks up Tony instead, using him as a shield from Thor's hammer, which hits Tony square in the face and sends him flying backwards, skidding until he hits the back of his head on a rock. Instantly, he blacks out.

When he wakes, he can see Thanos trying to kill Thor with his own axe, forcing it down on Thor, who's on the ground, Thanos's foot on him, holding him down. Tony starts to go to help despite his immense pain and his inability to actually get up, but then he stops trying, as he doesn't have to help. Not this time.

For a moment, he thinks he's dreaming, as he watches Steve Rogers lift Thor's hammer with ease, then throw it at Thanos. It hits him, saving Thor, and causing both he and Thanos to watch as Steve calls it back to himself. His shield is on his other arm, and the shock stills the battlefield for a moment.

And then Thor shouts, "I knew it!

Thanos turns and kicks him, breaking the rock he was laying against, and Tony struggles to sit up, though it hurts too much and he can't. But it doesn't seem to matter.

Steve spins the hammer as he and Thanos charge at each other, and Tony thinks that Thanos is a complete idiot all the while. It's proven, too, when Steve hits Thanos with the hammer, sending him flying backward, mirroring Tony's plight from earlier. Steve then spins, throwing the shield, and Thanos knocks it away, but Steve wasn't aiming for him.

He throws the hammer, hitting the shield with it, creating a blast which knocks Thanos forward. Steve then catches both weapons and jumps, actually kneeing Thanos in the chest. Tony snorts, watching Thanos stumble back. Steve then attacks his knee with the hammer, then his face with the shield, then hammer, then shield. And then he throws the shield, lets it come back, and hits it at Thanos again, hitting it with the hammer like it's a freaking baseball. Light flashes as it connects with Thanos' face.

Then, Steve calls down lightning, sending it rumbling through the ground right toward Thanos, and it throws him backwards, right onto his back. Steve calls lightning again, and Tony asks, "Friday, am I dead?"

"No, boss, you're alive," she says, "and this is very real."

Steve pulls the lightning down directly onto Thanos, and Tony can hear him roar from where he sits. Steve jumps on Thanos again, still using lightning, and only then does Thanos manage to dodge and get up.

He turns and grabs Steve by the throat, then slams him into the ground. Tony struggles, watching as Thanos picks up his blade, tosses off his damaged helmet, and swings at Steve in anger, missing every time as Steve dodges. But he can't dodge forever. After deflecting the blade with his shield, Thanos gets him in the leg. Tony can see Steve cry out, but he swings the hammer anyway, still fighting.

Thanos punches it away and sends Steve back to the ground. He gets up, but Thanos comes with the blade, swinging at him, managing to break off the top of Steve's shield, and then damage it further, leaving little more than half of it in tact. But Tony still can't get up. Not even when Steve is on the ground, away from Tony's sight.

"In all my years of conquest," Thanos says, "violence... slaughter — it was never personal. But I'll tell you now: what I'm about to do to your stubborn, annoying little planet, I'm gonna enjoy it. Very, very much."

A bright light comes down from the ship, and Tony sees familiar enemies — a vast army and two leaders he doesn't know, though they look evil, and two leaders he does: the big guy and Squidward.

"Oh, great," Tony mutters. He sees tanks — this  is all they can be called — amongst the army, the large pods from the ship, carrying huge beasts, come down, and he knows the only way it can get any worse is if Thanos gets the Stones.

And then Steve actually stands, though Tony can tell it's a struggle. He tightens the strap on the shield even as Chitauri beasts fly in, a reminder of so many years ago. The beginning of this team.

Steve approaches Thanos, limping. But then he stops, and Tony knows why.

He hears a grainy voice over comms.

"Hey, Cap, you read me?" Tony can't place the voice instantly, his mind foggy. It speaks again. "Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me?"

Sam Wilson.

Who turned to dust five years ago.

"They're really back," Tony whispers, his mind going to Peter.

"On your left," Sam says, and a glowing, sparking, orange circle opens up on Steve's left, and Tony recognizes it as Strange's. Steve turns as T'Challa, Shuri, and Okoye — the latter two whom Grace told him about — emerge from the circle, which has grown in size. Sam flies in from behind them and circles like a true falcon while more and more orange rings, thousands maybe, appear in the sky.

Tony looks at each one, waiting for Peter. There's so many people, and some circles are so far away that he can't spot him. But he's there. He's there somewhere, and he's alive. Tony just wished Grace were up here, seeing all this. He can see her eyes lighting up in his mind's eye.

An army emerges from the circles, as big as Thanos', if not bigger. Tony, with renewed excitement and energy, sits up, grunting with the effort.

And then, before him, Pepper lands in her anniversary present: Rescue.

I'm great with names, aren't I? he thinks.

Rescue's helmet pops up, and Pepper looks at him. "Where's Grace?"

"Under all the- the wreckage. But she's okay. Where's Morgan?"

"At home with Happy."

And then something huge emerges from the wreckage of the compound, something giant — or, well giant. It's Scott, and he's got Bruce, Rhodey, and Rocket with him. T'Challa's army begins to chant, and it's emboldening.

Tony flies over and lands near Steve, beside T'Challa and Hulk. Thor lands near him.

"Avengers!" Steve shouts. He holds out his hand, calling the hammer to it. Quietly, he finishes, "Assemble."

Thor roars, and they all charge, shouts ringing out, people running and flying and, hopefully, somewhere, swinging.

Tony fights whatever comes at him, staying in the air, blasting alongside Pepper.

"All we need is Grace and Morgan here, and we'd be an epic superhero family," Pepper says.

Tony laughs. "I don't think Morgan is quite ready for this yet."

"Oh, give her a few years."

"A few?"

Pepper laughs.

As he fights, Tony scans the battlefield for both Peter and Grace, though he sees neither for a while. Then, he ends up on the ground, blasting on all sides except behind him, where a large beast approaches and knocks him to the ground. He transforms his hands into even bigger blasters and fires, though the beast keeps coming. But, suddenly, the beast is pulled away.

By webs.

Once on the ground, Scott immediately steps on the beast, though whether that was on accident or not Tony doesn't know. Not that it matters.

What matters is the boy running towards him, breathless and excited and maybe just a little bit confused, but that's alright.

"Hey!" he says, his mask going down as Tony's does, and Peter grabs Tony's arm and helps him up. "Whoa! You will not believe what's been going on. Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? I must've passed out because I woke up, and you were gone, but Doctor Strange was there, right? And he was like, 'It's been five years, come on, they need us.' And then he started doing the orange sparkly thing that he does all the time-" Peter mimes the hand motions too, but Tony just cuts him off.

"He did?" he says softly, hugging Peter, this wonderful, kind, overexcited boy, the boy he thinks of as a son already, the boy his daughter loves, even now, after five years of him being gone. He hugs him, and he doesn't want to let go, and he is so, so happy that he tried. That he figured it out. That they did it.

"What are you doing?" Peter asks at first, but then he hugs him back, unaware of the happiness Tony is feeling right now. "Oh, this is nice," he says. And then, after a moment, he asks, "Where's Grace?"

Tony pulls back, tears in his eyes. "I- I don't know, but I know she's okay. She'll be here soon. You keep an eye out, okay? I- I've been looking, but there's so many people, I haven't seen her."

Peter nods. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course."

But they don't have to look long.

~~~~

Grace, Clint, Gamora, and Nebula emerge into the outside world, which is now dark and chaotic. The amount of people in the midst of the wreckage is enormous, but Grace knows where they came from.

Down below, she heard Sam. She heard him over her then mostly repaired comms. Clint did too, and she turned to him. "They're here, aren't they? They're...?"

And then she cut herself off, running in front of the group, sprinting, then flying. Gamora was confused, and then she shouted, "You're going the wrong way!"

Grace stopped midair and turned back to her, and she shouted back, though she was grinning in excitement, nothing able to dull it now. "Then hurry up and show me the right one! We have no time to waste!"

"Her boyfriend," Clint explains. "He got dusted. But we brought everybody back, so..."

Gamora nodded in understanding and ran to catch up with Grace, and they all managed to make it to the battlefield, where they're now going their separate ways.

Clint looks at Grace before she takes off. "Here, I'll take the glove. You go find Peter and your dad."

Grace gives it to him immediately, and then shoots up into the air, already blasting Thanos's army. "Sai, help me find Peter and Dad!"

Sai starts scanning, and then says, "Well, I found your mom."

Pepper is in the air, and Grace flies over to her, helmet retracting. "Hey, Mom."

Pepper turns, her own helmet doing the same. "Grace!" She hugs her. "Tony said you were okay, but he's been looking for you."

"Where is he?" Grace asks.

Pepper shrugs unconcernedly. "Somewhere down there, fighting."

"Where's Morgan?"

"At home with Happy."

"I found your dad!" Sai suddenly says. "He's with Peter."

Grace's eyes widen, and her heart swells in excitement. "Gotta go!" she calls, taking off, adding, "Be safe!" as her helmet goes back up. Pepper knows exactly what happened, and she smiles as she continues fighting.

Grace heads straight for her dad and her boyfriend, seeing them hugging as she gets closer. They part, and she quickly lands next to them, her helmet going down immediately.

"Hey, sweetheart," Tony says, now even more relieved than before. "Where were you?"

"Sub levels. With Clint. Also Nebula and Gamora. Long story." She turns to Peter, eyes filling with tears already at the sight of him.

Tony smiles. "Keep it brief; there's a battle going on." And then he leaves to give them a bit of privacy.

Grace practically launches herself at Peter, hugging him, and he hugs back, confused but laughing. "Well, hello to you too," he says, and she hugs him tighter.

Then, she lifts her head from his chest, and as she looks up at him, hardly believing that he's real, he is the whole world and everything in it. Every flower, every cloud, every drop of water lapping the shores, every beautiful, wonderful bird soaring on the dark horizon, somewhere far away from this wreckage.

And all he can do is look at her — at her watery eyes and the way they're looking back at him. He doesn't understand, not completely, but he can feel his heart beating so violently and loudly in his chest, feeling it warming and filling up so fast that he's almost afraid it will spill over and come pouring out of his mouth, ruining the moment. But she alleviates those fears when her lips collide with his, and their eyes close, his right hand instinctively moving to her shoulder, his left going around her waist as she leans into him, her one hand cupping his cheek, the other in his hair, and he leans towards her, too, into the kiss, breathing her in. It's slow and yet it's fast — so fast that it's over within seconds but it felt like forever over and over again. When they pull away, he leans forward again, resting his forehead on hers. She stole his breath. He stole hers. His mouth quirks up at the corners — his mouth, which, she wondrously thinks, was just on hers.

"Wow," he says. "I really was gone for five years, huh?"

She smiles. "Five long, long years."

He smiles back at her, his hand cupping her cheek, his thumb brushing her cheekbone, and he realizes that she looks older — but not in a bad way. Not at all.

But then, he suddenly frowns. "You didn't watch Merlin without me, did you?"

She leans back, laughing, then shakes her head. "No, I did not watch Merlin without you. Promise."

He's about to say something else, but then she notices an Outrider heading for them from behind his back, and she fires at it, her helmet going up as it's blasted back.

Peter looks at it, then back at her in surprise. "We should-"

She nods. "Yeah."

And they part, though they stay close, fighting together, just as they should be.